In an age of television and instant switch-on, children find it hard to get to the heart of a story or a text. We aim with the Happiness Project to show them that they can find happiness in small events and hone their skills to understand more deeply what is happening around them.
We chose to focus initially on the 5 Senses as a way of increasing their awareness. Starting with Hearing, and then Senses of Smell, Touch and Taste, we will round off this part of the project with Hearing, featuring music relating to story and illustration. We assembled so much material, that we decided to make each sense extend for two weeks. We are also including two sections pre and post project and then expand to Water and Swimming, Colours and Dancing for the summer. This will take the programme through to January next year. By then we should have more idea of whether workshops can be held again.
Switching from a workshop scenario to one where the children work from home has taken a fair amount of thought. But it is working! We are seeing wonderful results in the Happiness Books. Our children need something stimulating to focus on now that the worst of lockdown has passed. We hope this will help.
All units in the Lockdown Learning project as well as the Happiness Project are available free online for anybody who would like to use them.
https://www.childrensbook.co.za/home-reading-ideas
